Meta has introduced a new opt-in AI feature on Facebook in North America, allowing the platform to scan users’ phone photo libraries to generate personalized content suggestions. The feature is now available to users in the United States and Canada.
Once a user grants the app permission to access their photo library, the AI technology scans the media to identify content it can utilize. The system then offers creative suggestions, such as creating a collage from a recent vacation, generating a recap of an event like a graduation party, or enhancing photos with AI edits. These AI-generated suggestions remain private and are only visible to the user within their Stories and Feed until they decide to share them publicly.
Meta may use a user’s media to train its AI models under specific conditions. The company stated that it “won’t train its AI on your camera roll ‘unless you choose to edit this media with our AI tools, or share.'” This implies that media will only be used for AI training if a user applies AI edits to the content or chooses to share the AI-generated content on the platform.
The feature’s permission text explains that the app will upload selected media to Meta’s cloud to generate creative ideas. The permissions state, “To create ideas for you, we’ll select media from your camera roll and upload it to our cloud on an ongoing basis, based on info like time, location or themes.” However, Meta has clarified that any media uploaded for this purpose will not be used for ad targeting.
As the feature is opt-in, users must actively enable it to use the functionality. For those who grant permission and later decide against using it, the feature can be disabled at any time through Facebook’s camera roll settings. Following the rollout in North America, Meta plans to begin testing the feature in other countries.
